Sister
by Shocotate
Summary: Being with her made him forget sometimes of the duties that oft hovered around him, cloaking him in their shadows. As heir those things were of the utmost importance of course, but as they loomed ever closer, he took a greater value in the purity of her youthful enthusiasm.


I had so much fun with my last fic I decided to write another :)

In this fic Vorkken has recently turned 134 and Immorta is 63, with it being her birthday near the end of summer. So that's like them being 13 and a half and 6-ish.

* * *

"Dearest Immy, what is so urgent that you will not even tell me the slightest thing about it?"

"It's a secret. You need to see."

A short, breathless little laugh at his littler sister's whimsy, how she was oh so sure in her step, how she strode along as far as her dress would allow, with him trailing behind, so determined yet carefree in her wanderings. Being with her made him forget sometimes of the duties that oft hovered around him, cloaking him in their shadows. As heir those things were of the utmost importance of course, but as they loomed ever closer, he took a greater value in the purity of her youthful enthusiasm. If he being steadfast in his duties allowed that to flourish, he would gladly spare her from whatever duties of her own she would come to have as princess for as long as he could.

"My, a secret, now that does sound important." Knowing her, she could probably tell the hints of him humouring her, with the way she turned towards him and gave him a look, her unruly curl bouncing from its place drooped over the top of her tiara.

Though it only crossed his mind for a second, Vorkken wondered whether that, perhaps beneath this confidence and mock seriousness that came with being a child, there _was _something more afoot. What was so secret she could not say, so important that she had gone out of her way to meet him in the courtyard just after his afternoon training had ended? She never visited him on his training days, but it seemed that she had taken an especial interest in it, or him, because of this secret. Immorta hadn't even let him get dressed into more casual attire from his training clothes, and had herself slipped on her more formal, purely decorative shoulder armour over her dress.

Still, no reason to be concerned until she had showed him, it could just as easily been a random bout of hyperbole from his sibling. The young prince just followed along, through the corridors of the palace, wherever this secret happened to be. Mother and Father would probably be wondering where he had gotten to, they were always curious about how his training was progressing, but at one hundred and thirty-four, some independence was a given for him now, surely?

"It's in here." She murmured it while pushing open the door to her room, leading him inside too. He had been here plenty of time before, but never with it like this- all her dolls and toys strewn across the floor, threads of pale blue wool lying around them.

"Have you been knitting, little Immy? Is that what you wanted to show me?"

She shook her head.

"Knitting is boring." Oh, how odd. Last winter his sister being delighted to have received a knitted scarf and mittens from Mother. Despite their usual proper attire, the Rhulloian winter wasn't something to be trifled with, so they were allowed their less regal pleasures too, as far as clothing was concerned. "It's there." She nodded towards her toy box, though with what seemed like all her toys on the floor, what could possibly be inside?

Feeling her eyes on him as he went, Vorkken clipped his training boomerang to his back and stepped on far too cautious steps towards the box. Unlatching the heart shaped lock, he peered inside.

The thing inside was a soft blue in colour, a paler blue around its eyes, the pigment stretching up to the long, pointed tufts of its ears, and stretching down its snout to its small black nose. Long fur covered its stubby feet, and a ring of sharper, stiffer hairs grew like icicles around its neck.

"Immy, this…" No need to panic; he mustn't panic…

It curled up tighter, its three eyes lightly closed and its tail wrapped around itself. It looked like it was asleep. That was something, at least. But still…

"This is a nyurkfzat kit!" It took all he had not to slam the box shut again, and he settled for closing it with a too loud 'thud', but stopped short of locking it again. He didn't want to suffocate the thing.

"I found it in the garden. It was all shiv'ring and cold."

"Nyurkfzat are poisonous!" He knew the correct term should have been venomous, but that wasn't the most important thing right now. What was important was the wild animal nestled inside the toy box. Did she not see what was wrong? Plucking this creature from the garden (what were nyurkfzat doing in the royal grounds anyway?), and keeping it here. Did anyone else know, was he the only one she had shown this to?

"No, Immy, you need to- Immorta, listen to me now." She winced and straightened up at the sound. He hadn't meant for it to sound so harsh, in the rare tone their parents would take when she misbehaved. He'd just gottten so used to his nickname for her that saying her name properly sounded odd. "You know very well that nyurkfzat are dangerous. They might not be able to hurt us really bad with their stings, but you still should not pick one up, and—keep it in your toy box as a pet!"

"It's not a pet! I just wanted to… keep it safe. Saw it there and I felt sad for it, all alone there." She looked away, wrapping her arms around herself, her soft pink cheeks turning red.

Well, that made a little more sense, though the royal household had kept pets before, he hadn't suspected that his sister would spread that affinity towards non-domesticated animals. Even if her concern may have been misplaced, it was still encouraging to know the kit was taken for unselfish reasons. Speaking of which, he'd better make sure the kit was still asleep, lest it escape.

Looking over it again, its barbed tail was wrapped inside a mitten, tied up with the same wool currently on the floor. Oh, how resourceful of his little sister, to stop it from trying to sting her. It was almost funny, to see the kit's tail swathed in the wool of a dizzbong, when it was the creature that farmers always claimed were the biggest threat to their dizzbong livestock. For a chance moment Vorkken entertained the idea of removing the mitten to get a closer look. If he was honest with himself he was a tad curious. It wasn't everyday one saw a nyurkfzat kit up close, and it did look rather docile while asleep.

From his lessons on fauna as a child he recalled how their poison did not develop until they were older, but that didn't mean it still couldn't bite. The dominance hierarchy among kits started when they were very young, even younger than this kit, and that determined whether they would develop a single or split barbed tail when they matured. But what kind of example would he be setting for Immorta if he allowed himself to grow too attached to the creature at a single glimpse of it.

"I knew it was wrong, but I wanted you t'know." She sniffled a tad, coming to kneel beside him and her voice lowering to a whisper. "Even with the stories about the nyerkzat, I knew I had to help it." Nyurkfzat were scattered throughout dozens of Rhulloian fables, mainly highlighting their deceptive natures and trickery, often depicted as thieves, miscreants, and friends to no one. That's where the word 'nyurkfzat' came to be, named after 'Nyurk the fzat', the most famous star of such stories, and replacing the simple 'fzat' that named them before. "Mother and Father would be mad with me, but you can help, can't you?"

"Of course I will. You aren't in any trouble, at least you are aware that taking the nyurkfzat was wrong, but you did it only out of compassion and worry. They are still dangerous; you must not go near them by yourself. But your kindness will make you a fine princess of Rhullo when you're older, Immy."

"Thank you, brother."

The nyurkfzat stirred awake, and within seconds cried out with awful little shrieks of barks, hitting itself in the nose with the mitten as it flailed its tail.

"It is calling for its mother. We cannot keep it here; it needs to be in its normal habitat, out in the fields. If we leave it in the garden where you found it, its mother will surely come back for it."

"I know. I wouldn't want it to be sad and lonely here too." 'Too'? Was that what this was about, really? He closed the toy box again, just to drown the noise out a little. Even if it was a helpless thing, that didn't mean it couldn't be a bit of a nuisance.

As if she'd said something wrong she covered her mouth, like she was embarrassed.

"Immorta, dear sister of mine, are you… lonely here? Is that why you wanted my help with this, and why you came to meet me today?"

Sitting down properly, she hugged her knees to her chest, not whispering now, but still far softer than she did normally, more carefully, like she needed to think on what she was trying to say.

"When we was younger, we used to be together, always, remember? I miss that, brother, I miss being with you. Now you're always training…I do get lonely. But that's not why I took the nyerkzat, promise!"

This was all his fault. All his assumptions that she had no interest in spending time with him, so too had she thought the same of him. To her he'd been doing little more than brushing her aside, ignoring his beloved sister.

"Oh, Immy. My training _is_ important, but that doesn't mean I no longer have time for you anymore. If only you had asked sooner. I'm sorry for being so ignorant an older brother, for not seeing you were unhappy. I hope you can forgive me, if I make it up to you. I do not want my responsibilities to drive us apart, I am your brother first and a prince second." How awful she must have felt, thinking he had forgotten all about her in the few years since he had started his training. "I promise I'll spend more time with you, even on the days when I have to practise my training. Would you like that?" It was the least he could do, to make up for all the time they'd spent apart. Releasing the nyurkfzat was the first thing, and then they had the whole summer ahead of them.

For a moment she was still, as if considering it it, and then that beautiful, ever so familiar beaming smile of hers lit up her face in an instant. He could put up with his responsibilities, and whatever this training of his would amount to one day, and everything else if it meant she could always be so happy and peaceful. Then it was all worthwhile.

And then before he could say anything else, she'd already leapt on him with her most bubbly trill of a giggle, clinging to him like she'd never ever let go.

"I'd like that a lot, brother."

* * *

Oh, sibling fluffy stuff, and therein you have my interpretation of what the nyurkfzat and the dizzbong are. In the Japanese version of the game no such things are mentioned, but I thought it'd be fun to think that they're Rhulloian animals. Nyurkzfat are like foxes and Dizzbong are like sheep, in my crazy interpretations X3


End file.
